Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-09-22
which, but little more than an hour be-

| fore, we had descended under such differ
ent circumstances. At the gate of the
! wall stood Mrs. Mackenzie waiting for rs.
| When her eyes fell upon us, however, she
| shrieked out and covered her face with
her HAMS, crying, Horrible, Horriblen'
Nor were her fears allayed when she dis
covered her worthy husband being borne
upon an improvised stretcher; but her
doubts as to the nature of his injury were
soon set at rest. Then, when in few
brief words had told her the upshot of
the struggle (of which Flossie, who had
arrived in safety, had been able to explain
something), she came up to me and solemn
ly kissed me on the forehead.
God bless you all, Mr. Quartermain;
you have saved my child's life," she said
simply.
Then we went in, and got our clothes off,
and doctored our wounds; I am glad to say
had none, and Sir Henry's and Goods
were, thanks to those invulnerable chain
shirts, of q comparative harmless nature,
and to be dealt with by means of a few
stitches and sticking plaster. Mackenzie's,
however, was serious, though fortunately
the spear had not severed any large artery.
After that we had bath, and OH what a
luxury it was! and having clad ourselves
in ordinary clothes, proceeded to the dim
ing-room, where breakfast was set as US
ual 1t was curious, sitting down there,
drinking tea and eating toast in an ordin-
airy nineteenth century sort of a way, Just
as though we had not employed the early
hours in a regular primitive hand-to-hand,
middIe-ages kind OF struggle. AS Good
said, the whole thing seemed more as
though one had had bad nightmare Just
before being called, than as q deed done
When we were finishing our breakfast the
door opened and in came little FIossie
very pale and lottery, but quite unhurt
She kissed us all and thanked U.s. [ con-
graduated her on the presence of mind
she had shown in shooting the Nasal with
her Derringer pistol and thereby saving
her own life
sob, don't talk of ill., she said, begin
ming to cry Historically; II shall never for
get his face as he went turning round and
round, never-I can see it now"
I advised her to go to bed and get some
sleep, which she did, and awoke in the
evening quite recovered, 10 far as her
strength was concerned. 1t struck me as
an odd thing that girl who could find the
ing to kill her with a spear, should have
been so affected at the thought Of it after
ward; but it is after all, characteristic Of
the sex. Poor Flossie! [ fear that her
nerves will not get over that night in the
Nasal camp for many a long year. She
told me, afterward, that it was the suspense
that was SO awful; having to sit there hour
after hour through the livelong night, ut
to
tempt was to be made to rescue her She
said that, on the whole, she did not expect
it, knowing how few there were Of us, and
how many Of the Nasal, who, by the way,
came continually to stare at her, most of
them never having seen a white person
before, and handled her arms and hair
with their filthy paws She said, also, that
she had made up her mind that if she saw
no signs Of succor by the time the firstrays
OF the rising sun reached the kraal, she
would kill herself with the pistol, for the
nurse had heard the Lygonani say that
they were to be tortured to death as soon
as the sun was up, if one of the white men
did not come in their place Tt was an
awful resolution to have to take, but she
meant to act on it; and have little doubt
that she would have done so. Although
are in the schooEroOm and come down to
dessert, this daughter Of the wilderness"
had more courage, discretion, and power
OF mind than many a woman of mature age
nurtured in idleness and luxury, with
minds carefully drilled and educated out
of any originality or self-resource that ma
ture may have endowed them with.
When breakfast was over, we all turned
III Il IL
i'll time for dinner; after which meal we
once more adjourned, together with all the
available population-men, women, youths
and girls-to the scene of the morning
slaughter, our object being to bury our
own dead, and get rid of the Nasal by
finging them into the Tana River, which
ran within fifty yards Of the kraal. On
reaching the spot. we disturbed thousands
upon thousands of Yultures and a sort of
brown bysh-eagle, which had been flocking
to the feast from miles and miles away.
Often have I watched these great and re-
pulsive birds, and marveled at the extra
ordinary speed with which they arrive on
a scene of slaughter. A buck falls to your
rifle, and, within a minute, high in the
blue ether appears speck that gradually
grows into vulture, and then another,
advanced to account for the wonderful
power of perception nature has given these
birds Ny own, founded on q good deal of
observation. is, that the vultures, gifted, |
as they are, with powers of sight greater
than those given by the most powerful
glass, quarter out the heavens among
themselves, and, hanging in mid-air at a
vast height-probably from two to three
miles above the earth-keep watch, each
of them, over an enormous stretch of coun-
try Presently one Of them spies food, and
instantly begins to sink toward it. There
on his next neighbor in the airy heights,
sailing leisurely through the blue gulf, at
distance, perhaps, of some miles, follows
his example, knowing that food has been
sighted. Down he goes, and all the vul-
lures within sight Of him follow after, and
so do all those in sight of them. In this
way the vultures for twenty miles round
can be summoned to the feast in few
minutes.
We buried our dead in solemn silence,
Good being selected to read the Burial
Service over them lin the absence Of Mr..
Io,ll